Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Bill seeks to address what the Supreme Court identified as being required - giving the arrangements a legal footing and cementing our ongoing relationship with Northern Ireland. For that reason, I cannot support the Senator's amendment.

In the Supreme Court judgment Mr. Justice O'Donnell called the cross-Border approach to fisheries "an important area of co-operation between the two jurisdictions" and said "there is much to applaud". He also noted that such co-operation was "arguably an implementation of the constitutional provisions which have been in place since 1999 which expressly contemplate cross-Border co-operation in a number of areas." The reciprocal arrangement has been in place since an agreement between Seán Lemass and Terence O'Neill was made in the early 1960s whereby they exchanged letters and as a consequence of which we had reciprocal access. Boats from Northern Ireland were entitled to come here and fish in the zero to six-mile zone in the exact same circumstances as Southern Irish boats. Our boats were entitled to fish in Northern Ireland fishing waters under the exact same arrangements that applied to Northern Irish boats in their jurisdiction. On 27 October the Supreme Court did not state this was illegal. rather it lauded it. It stated it was entirely appropriate and an important area of co-operation but that the exchange of letters was not a sufficient legal framework for it. To regulate an arrangement that had been in place for nearly 50 years there was a requirement to give it a legislative framework. This is not breaking new ground. It goes back to something that was in place on 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 and 26 October 2016, but on the 27 October the Supreme Court stated there was no legal framework. Our boats have continued to be entitled to fish in Northern Ireland fishing waters under the voisinagearrangements, but Northern Irish boats are not entitled to come here.